Question about wheels and offsets

I disagree. It costs FAR more in energy and pollution to make a new car than it does to run an old one every day for 10 years or more. As for safety - yeah, the '55 has a straight, non-collapsible steering column pointing at my chest. So what? it's only myself that is at risk, and I don't drive like an asshat, and I've also made a few modifications for safety (lap belts, dual circuit master cylinder, later-model finned drums in front, later model sway bar in front and '55 sedan sway bar in back, HD springs, and most importantly radial tires on Chrysler cop car wheels)

As for my newer car... well, it's a Porsche 944, passes emissions every year, and I feel confident driving it that I have a better chance of avoiding an incident than I do in the vast majority of newer cars simply because it handles like nobody's business.

nate

Anything can be fixed. There were some serious frame cracks on my old '56 Golden Hawk; I've got pictures of the local welding guy that came by with a truck-mounted stick welder and made it better than new (I had him add reinforcements under the upper control arm mounting points.) Cost me about $350 (of course I already had the front clip off and suspension removed for him) much cheaper and much less energy used than making a new frame!

Unfortunately I sold the car to a guy in England who was going to completely restore it; it died a spectacular death when the fireworks warehouse next door to the resto shop caught on fire :(

nate

Coincidence? I watched "Shockwave" on CourtTV last night and they ran a segment on that same fireworks blowup/fire. It was a pair of scissors that caused the whole thing. No Hawks in the flick tho..

Really? place I'm thinking of was in Bristol, but without digging out the old BBC news article I couldn't say what the name of either the fireworks place or the resto shop was. I can't imagine a large fireworks warehouse going up is a common occurrance tho so it may as well be. this happened maybe a year or two ago.

nate

I will second that!

I keep my 'old' Jeep tuned up well enough to get a nice 23 mpg (11L/100km or less) highway 'and' pass emissions 'with low numbers' too!

Tuneups are cheap and easy on old beasts usually also, unlike some new cars where you have to pull the engine 'out' to change the plugs...

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 'New' frame in the works for '08. Some Canadian Bush Trip and Build Photos:

Hi,

Agreed.

I saw some numbers on the Toyota Prius recently. Quite a surprise: whatever it "saves" while being driven was far more than made up for w/ manufacturing "costs" in the pollution and/or energy consumed departments. Adding all these costs together, driving a Prius for 100k miles was "costlier" to the environment than driving a similar sized gas-burner the same miles.

Green? What a buzzword! We're not going to even TOUCH on being "green" until the world realizes irresponsible procreation is at the root of many, if not most, of our pollution woes and starts working on THAT issue. In the meantime, all too much of this is idle lip service and this fad will blow over to the "Next great thing to worry about" soon enough.

I drive older cars. By choice. I have no kids. By choice. I ride my bicycles (even they're "old") instead of driving a car whenever practical, for my health as well as "environmental" considerations (which include my "economic environment.") Again, this is by choice. I think in making these choices and doing these things over the last four decades or so, I've done much more to "help save the world" than the guy down the street who just bought the brand new hybrid SUV to haul his five fat brats around. A microscopic view of the big picture's not all that helpful.

Don't know what any of this has to do w/ wheel offsets, though.

Rick